


Fall In

by JamtheDingus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flirting, Fluff, Ice Skating, M/M, Minor Allura/Lance (Voltron), Protective Keith (Voltron), a bit - Freeform, laughing, like if you squint - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 16:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17144792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamtheDingus/pseuds/JamtheDingus
Summary: When Keith pulls him too close to the ice, Hunk shrinks up like a clam biting down on a pearl. “I don’t like trying new things.”“You love trying new things.” Keith laughs, in spite of trying to be serious. “You’re a scientist.”“Engineer.” A couple squeezes past them, eager to get in on the rest of the fun, and Hunk hurries to huddle off to the side.Very eloquently, Keith says, “Bah.”---Keith, who doesn't know how to ice skate, teaches Hunk how to ice skate.





	Fall In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tanya_sm10](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=tanya_sm10).



> christmas nerds
> 
> i've never been ice-skating so,,,,, things may read weird, but also neither can keith or hunk so it Fits

Hunk nervously skitters on the edge of the rink, wringing his hands.

Keith stands half on the ice, holding his palm out to Hunk. “C’mon. We’re in this together.”

“You’re so serious.” Hunk laughs, though it’s more him panicking than anything. Keith steps back onto the flat carpet to grab his hand and tug him forward. Not forceful— not to shove him on the ice— but to urge him on.

“I’ll try not to let you fall.”

“You don’t know how to skate either.” Hunk bemoans. “Why did we let Lance talk us into this?”

Keith glances onto the ice, past Pidge being lifted high above Shiro’s head as they spin in the middle of the rink (rather, past her clinging to him like a wet cat as he tries to urge her out of her comfort zone.

Past Coran skating circles around a pack of children who are in awe of both his accent and his mustache decorated with Christmas baubles.

Past the other ice-skaters, until Keith’s eyes lock with Lance’s, who is showing off his skin-tight, low-cut skating outfit to none other than Allura. He’s got a leg lifted on the barrier the separates the carpet from the ice, maybe to show off his flexibility or maybe to flash Allura, Keith isn’t really sure, but she seems to be into the way the icy-blue spandex clings to him.

“I have no idea.” Keith says, breaking away when Lance’s grin gets too shit-eatery. “We’ll go slow, Hunk. We’re already here— might as well try it.”

When Keith pulls him too close to the ice, Hunk shrinks up like a clam biting down on a pearl. “I don’t like trying new things.”

“You love trying new things.” Keith laughs, in spite of trying to be serious. “You’re a scientist.”

“Engineer.” A couple squeezes past them, eager to get in on the rest of the fun, and Hunk hurries to huddle off to the side.

Very eloquently, Keith says, “Bah.”

He slides onto the ice, one foot at a time. It’s easy to balance after years of hopping from one foot to the other when practicing martial arts, but the momentum is harder to control. He ends up clinging to the wall, careful not to let himself fall unless he wants Hunk to stay carpet-bound for the entire night.

“See?” He says, after a long moment of sliding this way and that. He doesn’t let go just yet, and Hunk pointedly stares down at his hands.

Shiro passes by, Pidge curled around his shoulders. “You two okay?”

Pidge reaches down to ruffle Keith’s hair. It’s obvious she’s adoring the new height, as frightened she is that Shiro’s gonna drop her onto the unforgiving, solid ground. “Told ya you should’ve taken lessons.”

“You’re not helping.” Keith says, turning his nose up. “Go tell Lance to stop exposing himself to the general public.”

Hunk snorts at that, though he muffles it beneath his mittens. He’s hovering at the edge between the ice and safe-ground, though, so Keith doesn’t call attention to him.

“Coran could probably have you guys flying around her as soon as he loses his new tails.”

All four of them look over to the growing kid-posse that Coran was accumulating. Some of the children were hanging from his arms— which looked like a total liability if not for the ease Coran was displaying handling them— and others were eagerly hopping like bunnies at his feet as he regales a tale or another about his dramatic (and somewhat overstated) history.

Hunk succumbs to his nerves and circles back to the safe side of the wall. “I don’t think he’s getting free of those little grubby hands for a while.”

“I don’t think he _wants_ to.” Shiro shakes his head, nudging Keith with his foot. It nearly sends Keith sprawling to the floor, and he fumbles so hard that he nearly slips into a side-split.

When he rights himself, bent at the knees and arms extending in front of him, Shiro is wide-eyed and biting his lip to keep from keeling over from laughter.

“I,” Keith begins, “do not like you.”

“You love him.” Pidge dismisses, before Shiro even starts to respond. She points over to Coran’s kids. “Let’s go show them a _real_ skater, Shiro.”

“You’re volunteering?”

“Uh, _no_.” Pidge snorts. “You’re the legs, I’m the brain. Obviously. First we’ll impress them with a triple flip, and that should get most of them.”

“What, like a Lutz? Do I look professional to you?” Shiro kicks off anyway, with a soft pat to Keith’s back and a nod in Hunk’s direction.

“You’ve got the hair for it!”

Their voices disappear to blend in with the rest of the crowd, and Hunk shakes his head. Keith has that resolute notch in his brow, downturning his entire expression as he focuses on looking calm while he tries to gather his new bearings.

“Maybe I can just go buy us something hot to drink? And some soft pretzels?”

Keith straightens to his full height, eyes shutting. He slides back a few inches— on purpose, by the looks of it— and kicks forward in a small, wobbly circle.

Which, to Hunk, is witchcraft. When Keith loops back around, Hunk is there to receive him with applause and a wide-eyed look.

“And you said you’ve never been on ice before.” Hunk tsks, waddling like a penguin further away from the entrance to the rink.

“Mm.” Keith reaches for him again, grabby hands and all. He disregards Hunk shaking his head and grips him by the shoulder, urging him to the ice again. “C’mon. I’ll figure this out by the time we circle around the rink. I won’t let you fall.”

Hunk doesn’t _let_ himself get shoved, but he finds himself half on the ice anyway. Damn him. “You can’t promise that.”

“I’m going to.” Keith stands, resolute. He keeps his palms steady as Hunk grabs for them, squeezing tight. “Just don’t panic.”

Hunk feels himself turning red at how quickly Keith is taking the reins. He always was good at physical activities, so Hunk wasn’t sure why he was so surprised that this would be just fine for him— but to be dragging back his progress made him feel a bit lackluster inside.

His skates make that terrifying nose that is metal blades sliding across solid, near frictionless mass, but when he jumps, Keith keeps him steady. He slides a few inches, yes, but they don’t go tumbling immediately.

When he fully makes it to the ice safe and sound, Keith smiles at him. He breathes a sigh, through his nose, and moves to Hunk’s left to give him space. The wall stays steady, a beacon of protection in Hunk’s mind, on his right, and Hunk suddenly doesn’t feel so apprehensive.

“There we go.” Keith soothes, sliding one foot forward. “Just follow my lead.”

“Aye, aye.” Hunk would salute, if he wasn’t gripping the railings so tightly. He follows Keith a quarter of the way down before he has to pause and take a breath. People dodge around them, hardly deterred by them going so slow, and Hunk soon starts to calm the longer they go without incident.

Keith extends further out, taking up more space. He wasn’t self-conscious in the slightest for cutting through groups hanging out in the middle, or by letting a child pass between them. Through the slow-pace, he keeps Hunk’s hand held tight in his grip.

Hunk kinda feels like he’s floating, and he’s not sure it’s from the physical activity. Keith has both his eyes keenly trained on Hunk’s entire countenance, and it’s making him happier than it should to be given that much attention at once.

Not that he’s poor in the currency that is Keith’s attention. But it was always flustering to have more of it.

“You’re doing great.” Keith murmurs, reaching up to press his thumb against Hunk’s cheek. A loving gesture, if not for the frozen temperature of his skin.

“Get a room!”

Lance passes by, backwards to tease them face to face. Allura isn’t by his side, still tying her laces after being distracted for the last half-hour by Lance’s show. Hunk can see from there how red her face was, and he _would_ comment on him giving her a heart attack one of these days if not for how much he had to concentrate on his balance with his friend’s sudden pop up. It was like when you’re engrossed in a pirated movie and you accidentally click, and suddenly a dozen ads take up your screen and interrupt the mood.

Not that Hunk didn’t enjoy Lance’s company. But, Keith was rare with the touches, especially in public. C’mon, man.

“Speak for yourself, you exhibitionist.” Keith says, completely straight-faced.

Lance chuffs, like a cat stunned that a box was too small to fit them, but Hunk is so startled by the sudden accusation that he laughs, quick and loud. And that is enough to throw him off balance, sending him tumbling to the ground.

And, because Keith is clinging to him so tight (or, the other way around), he goes flying with him.

Lance inhales so sharply that it’s like glass cracking, another stunned noise all at once, but Hunk is too busy shooing away the birds tweeting at him as they circle around his head. You know, proverbially.

He’s lucky he fell ass first.

Keith ends up sprawled half on top of him, dazed by the wide-eyed look he has.

Hunk laughs again, pressing an embarrassed hand to his own forehead to hide himself. “You said you wouldn’t let me fall!”

Keith hardly has a retort for it. He just picks himself up, palm to the cold, and starts to laugh harder than he has the entire night. It sends tremors through his entire body, and the sound of it only urges Hunk to laugh more, too.

“I’m sorry.” Keith wheezes, shoving some of his hair out of his face. It’s the most beautiful sound— most beautiful view, that is Keith hovering atop him and laughing without a care. “I wasn’t expecting that to happen.”

“You and me both.”

Lance tsks at them, but he exits the scene before he gets accused of ice-skating crimes.

Keith slides to his knees, then up on his feet again. He has to lean against the wall to stop from sliding back down as he tries to help Hunk up, and in the end they both end up on their knees on the ice again before they stop laughing.

Hunk has literal tears in his eyes when he finally makes it to his feet, and Keith is well past interpretation with how unintelligible his sentences have gotten, but Hunk can honestly say that this is the best he’s felt all night.

He kisses him, crowding him right across the wall. Both his mittened-hands come to rest on Keith’s shoulders, because that’s the only way he can stay upright and not end up with his face buried in Keith’s stomach from another fall, but Keith doesn’t seem to mind as he giggles against Hunk’s lips.

His cold fingers find their way to Hunk’s cheeks again, stealing the warmth there until Hunk’s already red nose has scrunched up, and his cheeks are rosy to match.

“Sorry for letting you fall. I broke my promise.”

“I don’t think you _let_ me.” Hunk sighs, happy and content. Even if he really wanted to, he’s not sure he can be mad with how earnestly Keith was trying to teach him. And, besides that, he was all gooey inside just from being able to hold his hand for so long. “But, it’s okay.”

Keith tips up for a kiss, teetering dangerously on his skates, and Hunk meets him in the middle.

Lance comes back, the trouble-maker, hanging on Allura’s arm. He whispers something in her ear, and, when Keith drops back on his feet and Hunk has pulled away, she obediently yells, “Get a room!”

**Author's Note:**

> merry christmas tanya!!!!!!! i hope u enjoy this one c': the inspiration came out of nowhere
> 
> thank u sm for bein my friend ;w; i hope u have a good chrimsus! everyone go spread some love to her [@tanya_sm10](https://twitter.com/tanya_sm10) on twitter!


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